Trademark applicants should exercise care when drafting descriptions of goods and services, particularly when marketing highly regulated goods.
Tag Archives: trademarks
Dog Poo Redux
December 8, 2022
Trademark
VIP Products, LLC markets a line of cute, humorous squeaky dog toys, consisting of vinyl replicas of liquor, beer, wine, and soda brands labeled with humorous names, usually related to dog poop. So, we have toys labeled “Smella R-Crotches”, Heini Sniff’n, Pissness, and Mountain Drool, associated with likenesses of Stella Artois beer, Heineken’s, Guinness, and Mountain […]
Click-Pop-Swish — No License Required!
December 5, 2022
Trademark
The sound of popping beer cans on a hot summer day may evoke memories: quenching a thirst on a hot day, backyard barbecues, days at the beach, or sunny afternoons at the ballgame. Beer can sounds are not going away. The beer can market is going gangbusters. According to one industry source, in 2020, approximately 90.2 […]
Five Steps for Registering a Trademark in Pennsylvania
November 7, 2022
Trademark
*Originally posted on August 21, 2015 Do you want to use the ® symbol? If so, then you want to learn more about federal trademark registration. We’ve written about the benefits of state trademark registration. There aren’t many but if you believe state registration is right for you, here’s a brief guide on how to register […]
Beyond Submarine Trademarks: Advanced Trademark Strategies II
November 3, 2022
Trademark
We wrote in last month’s newsletter that filing trademark applications in foreign jurisdictions may have a strategic benefit to large companies in the United States, particularly for companies that desire to mask product development plans from the public eye while maintaining the priority date of an earlier foreign filing. Known as a “submarine” trademark, the key […]
*Originally posted on April 30, 2015 Dear Doc: A lawyer friend told me that I should copyright the name of my band, The Miseracordions, so that when I make it big (this polka thing is REALLY gonna take off soon!) I can keep other people from using the name. Apart from our music, that just […]
Don’t be Caught “Void Ab Initio” (It’s Unbecoming)!
October 10, 2022
Trademark
*Originally posted on March 30, 2015 Trademark law in the United States is all about “use.” When you’re using your trademark it is accumulating goodwill and you are exercising your trademark rights. Absent “use,” your trademark rights dwindle and the trademark itself is subject to abandonment. This is an important principle, particularly, when you are […]
Anybody who has tried will agree that choosing a trademark for your product or service isn’t easy. Yes, you have to choose the right mark but then you have to make sure that nobody else has made the same (or similar) choice. More often than not, you discover truth in the adage that there’s no […]
New technologies give rise to new intellectual property headaches. Non-fungible tokens or NFT’s are no exception. What is an NFT? For the uninitiated (and hermits), an NFT is a unique digital token that one can own, sell, or redeem. Bitcoin and Ethereum are examples of digital tokens. Cryptocurrency, however, is fungible. The Bitcoin I own is not unique […]
Ask Dr. Copyright © about Trademarks (huh?)
March 17, 2022
Ask Dr. Copyright
Numbers are routinely used to name products but that there are so many of them that it takes a lot of marketing to make a number distinctive.